BrewerRN

Not sure what area of the country you are in, but that sounds about right. I am in rural NC and I am making a little more. I am a PHN II with almost 5 years experience though. I love public health. The cut in pay was well worth it. Less stress and better hours.

I have almost 18 years peds experience and I am working in case management for 4 1/2 years. Love it!!! I was able to sit for the exam 2 years ago and passed. I had to study a little harder in some areas becasue of my lack of experience (Medicare and Workman's Comp), but it was totally worth it. I think kapalmer is correct about needing various background. There really is no perfect background for case management. Everthing is a great fit. You can bring your own expertise.

Check out your local health departments, rural health clinics and home health agencies for case management positions. That's how I found mine.

I do a similar program, except I am on the pediatric side. 140 to 150 patients seems overwhelming on the surface, but like the previous poster stated, spread out over 30 days, it's not bad. Most of your contact will be over the phone. You will have on average 50 or so to contact per month, depending on the client's status. Your charting will be your most time consuming thing. If you are going to be doing you charting in CMIS, it will take some getting use to, but it is pretty easier once you get the hang of it. Try not to get too hung up on the numbers.

I hope you're right. I soooo type "A" about studying and not being able to get a grasp on a tangible study pattern for this exam is freaking me out!!! Thanks for the reply. Say a little prayer and keep you're fingers crossed. i really don't want to have to pay for this puppy again!

I need some help....PLEASE! I am "studying" for my Lamaze certification exam that is scheduled for 10/26/11. I have books. I have gone through the required course and I am teaching a childbirth class, but I have no idea how to study for this exam. I have hte Official Lamaze study guide and I have tried to "study" it to no avail. Would some body please give me some direction to go in? I am no asking for specific questions, but at least an idea. This stuff seems so opinion based. I am an RN and had no problem with the NCLEX. I am a IBCLC (Lactation consultant) no problem studying for that. I also am cetified in case management again no problem, but this one has me stumped. Thaks in advance for any help and sorry in advance for my ignorance!! :)

I have been working in public health for a little over 4 years and LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IT!!! I would NEVER go back to any other type of nursing unless forcefully dragged!!! PHN jobs are few and far between in rural NC, but in our larger areas there are a few. Good luck. I highly recommend this area of nursing!!

I worked as a PACU nurse in a plastics office for almost a year and for me to get hired I had to know someone. The surgeon did not advertise. He only hired by word of mouth. Cut down on the riff-raff I guess. BTW, a little advice, put a lot of thought into this and do some research before getting into this. I had my experience and it was not as rainbows and daisies as one would think. It also might not be the best place for a new grad. Just my 2 cents. Good luck.

I passed it the first time without any difficulty. I did not think it was really that difficult. I used a study guide called CCM Exam Study Secrets. I found it on Amazon. I know it sounds a little "scammie", but that's what I used and passed. Good luck if you try again.

I am on the coast of NC and I work public health. We are the lucky ones that are manning the shelters. So, luckily I do get to take my daughter with me since hubby's in Afghanistan. I have to just pack enough caffeine to stay awake for the next 36 hours or so. We are not suppose to sleep during our shelter shifts. Yippee! haven't pulled an all nighter like that in mmmmaaannnyyyy years!!!

I love it. I have been working as a case manager for about 4 1/2 years now. Love it so much I became certified last year.

You can always put you education and training towards getting your lactation consultaing certification. I have been an IBCLC (international Board Certified Lactaton Consultant) and a RN for several years now. www.ibcle.com for the pathways for RN will show you what you need to do to complete it.

I am not familiar with the term mother and Infant nurse. Are you doing newborn/postpartum homevisits or case managerment like nurse/family partnership? I do the NB/PP home visits and I do case management and I would be glad to help you and explain some things be I need a little more info. BTW, it took me about 6 month to get my footing in Public Health. I was a little lost because it is a totally different kind of nursing, but I LOVE IT!!!

Ok, so I am starting a new adventure in nursing...I think. I have an opportunity to provide childbirth classes to a local health department as a contract position only. During my "interview" I was asked what my salary would be. I am not sure how to answer this because I have never contracted out any childbirth classes before. My question to you guys is...What's the going rate? I am taking my Lamaze certification exam in October, I am an IBCLC (Lactation Consultant) and a RN. Thanks in advance for your time and consideration!

I have worked in peds for the majority of my 19 years in nursing and I can honestly say it is hard NOT to get attached to some of those little ones. One the other hand, what your friend is doing is inappropriate. She needs to learn how to control her feelings and be professional. You can care for your patients without emersing yourself into their life. She will burn out fast if she does not get hold of her emotions; especially if she is working in a hospice situation. Good luck to you explaining it to her and good luck to her working through this.

In our hospital, a nurse coordinator usually works in a particular unit coordinating staffing, filling in on assignments if anyone is out in the unit. A case manager deals with patients. In a hospital setting, they may coordinate discharge services, outpt. therapies, insurance covering said therapies, etc. In an inpat. setting, a case manager would keep patient working towards timely discharge. That would be more of utilization review or seeing how the hospital can effectively treat and quickly discharge patients. Hope this helps.

I have an ADN in nursing and my son is currently attending a university. He and I frequently discuss his classes. My son made the HUGE mistake of commenting on the fact that MY chemistry class that I took at a CC was not as difficult as HIS chemistry because he was taking it at a university. He went on to explain that ALL university classes were much more difficult at the university level than at a CC level. Ok...once I talked myself out of choking the last breath out of him...I calmly (ok...not so calmly or quietly) explained to him that his CC educated parents (my husband has an associate's as well) were sole supporting him. He was living in an apartment and not in a dorm, he did not have to work through college like so many of his friends, he has a nice paid for truck, etc... I gave him the choice of supporting himself through his "university life" or letting his CC educated parents help him. Needless to say he chose the latter. He has not brought it up again, but I do on a regular basis.

You are definately starting out in a MUCH better place than myself. I am sitting for my Lamaze cert in October and I feel much more prepare for that exam now, not having even studied. I am pulling from a more holistic point of view that I did not have before. It makes a big difference if you are able to shut down that nurse part of your brain. As for our 8 hours, it was very structured. The earliest we were allowed to leave, even if we were done with our exam was an hour early, so that we did not disturb the others taking the exam. Good luck! I am sure you will do wonderfully!

I guess it's all perspective. I did NCLEX-RN with 75 questions and felt it was relatively easy. I felt very prepared for that exam in comparison to the IBCLC exam. It was 8 hours and I found it very difficult to put my nursing knowledge to the side and use the simplest, sometimes, non-medical interventions to "fix" breastfeeding issues. I unfortunately did to have any LLL experience to pull from, so yes, the exam totally sucked for me.

Then totally go for it! If it is a passion, then we definately need more of you in the field!

You will also need more than counseling hours to qualify to set for the exam. You need to do some research. Obtaining an IBCLC is a long process like merrick stated. Check out the pathways on the IBCLE website: http://americas.iblce.org/ It took me about 3 years to finally get all of my CEUs and my counseling hours to sit for mine and I was already a nurse. Starting as a peer counselor is a great start, but finish nursing school first and then consentrate on IBCLC.

I am a public health nurse and I am very up front and honest with both of my kids. I was also a teen mom, 19 for me. I started talking to my son about sex when he was around 14 or 15. I mean about "the uncontrollable hormone thing", not the "your body will go through changes thing". He was allowed to go on unsupervised dates at 16 and I started giving him condoms at 16. He actually came to me later on and told me when he thought he wanted to start having sex. So far, the condoms have worked because he's now 19 and was got through his first year of college without any grandkids. My daughter is 12 and I will probably follow a similar course with her. Her dad is not really happy about it because it's his "baby girl", but hormones happen. Good luck! You'll do what's right for your family. Besides, whether or not you give your daughter birth control is not going to make her decide whether or not she has sex.

I am a certified case manager through the Commission for Case Managers Certification and according to them, LVN/LPN cannot be certified in case management. I am sure there are LPN case managerment positions, but in my area, you would be working out of your scope of practice in case managment. You are required to work indepedently without direct supervision.

The requirements have really lessened since I went through the certification process. I had to have 4000 hour of documented counseling and 75 CERPs as a RN with the 8 hour exam. I just recertified with CERPs this year, so my next if have to recertify with the exam. I am seriously considering not recertifying again. The exam SUCKS!!!!!! So much worse that NCLEX-RN guys!

I knew that changes were coming, I just was not sure what they would include. You can find the pathways on http://americas.iblce.org/. BTW, proudmommy, there really is no "fast and easy" way to becoming an IBCLC. You can chose to become a breastfeeding peer counsleor or lactation/breastfeeding educator. Both of these are less costly and you can complete these in much less time. Your local WIC office or La Leche leader can talk with you about becoming a peer counselor as for the Lactation/breastfeeding Educator you can go to http://www.birtharts.com/beced.htm. I really don't know much about this certification. One of our nutritionists took a lactation educator course through the WIC office and it was a 5 day class and 2 day clinical; no testing and no recertification. I know that one of our local hospitals did a breastfeeding educator course years ago because that's how I started and it was a 3 day class with 2 days of clinical; no testing and no recerticication needed.